We have 40 wood windows to replace (Nashville, TN area) double hung as well as picture windows. While I have over 20 years in commercial construction project management, I have never had to deal with residential windows so I am lost after reading up on what we were shown and quoted yesterday.

Based on recommendations on Nextdoor, we called one of the companies that is family owned, local, and has been in business over 25 years. I am not so much in doubt about the company and their installation as I am which windows to go with. He only showed us the Mezzo by Alside in the double not triple pane. Every board I look at it seems that you all don't like Mezzo. He also offers Anderson, PlyGem, Atrium, Monarch, Quaker, Ellison, Pella, Simonton, JeldWen, PGT, and ViewPoint.

What windows do you all recommend that won't completely break the bank? (And from everything I read, I sure wish Windows on Washington serviced our area - LOL)

You should be able to find Soft-lite and Sunrise there. You might also luck out and get an Okna dealer in your area. That would be a good start. Get at least two quotes from contractors offering better quality products to give you a good baseline of what’s reasonable.

My experience as a consumer trying to educate himself has been that if you just call a window company and say "I'm looking at windows", they're going to show you a mid-grade window (like the Mezzo, which is one of the first that I saw too) because they know that most people are going to be bewildered by the sales pitches and that price will be a huge factor in the decision. They're not going to lead out with the high end models because they will instantly be "priced out" based on comparisons to the competition.

If I could go back and do it all over again, I would start with a list of brands and models that I wanted to see, then I'd go to the dealer locator for those brands, find the dealer that has the best BBB/Angie's List/Google reviews, and then ask them specifically to bring the models you want to see.

Based on my research here, I threw away my first 4 quotes for mid-level stuff and started over with Sunrise, Softlite, and Kensington HPP. (Local Okna dealer doesn't carry the 500, so I didn't bother w/ a demo)

The other thing I'd say, after talking with 9 sales people over the last month, is that it's probably VERY unlikely that you'll find a salesperson that approaches the job the way the folks on here do. I was surprised at how little a sales guy pushing one brand knew (or admitted to knowing) about other brands. They seem to know little beyond their own product, and more than one told me that I was obsessing too much over spacer differences or build construction or whatever. So don't be afraid to do your research and stick to your guns, even if the guy selling Brand X tells you that Feature Y "isn't really a big deal".

What other lines did the Okna dealer sell? I would explore that further.

My thoughts exactly. Which line does that dealer carry? Okna offers several excellent lines. While the 500 is a great window, its actually in their lower half of offerings. You have other great options as well to be sure, it just wouldn't hurt to add one more into the mix if you are not completely enamored with any of the others.